Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-04-07
KING
Solomon 5 Mines,
BY FL. RIDER HAGGARD.

whispered the Hottentot, throwing himself
on his face, an example which we all fol-
lowed.
Then ] saw that the birds were flock of
paw (bustards), and that they would pass
within fifty yards of my head. Taking one
of the repeating WinchestGrs / waited till
they were nearly over us, and then Jumped
on to my feet On seeing me the paw
punched together as / expected they would,
and | fired two shots straight into the thick
of them, and, as luck would have it, brought
one down, fine fellow, that weighed about
twenty pounds. In half an hour we had a
fire made Of dry melon stalks, and he was
toasting over it, and we had such feed as
we had not had for week. We ate that
paw; nothing was left of him but his bones
and his beak, and felt not little the better
afterward.
That night we again went on with the
moon, carrying as many melons as we could
with us. AS we got higher up we found the
air getting cooler and cooler, which was a
great relief to us, and at dawn, so far as we
could judge, were not more than about a
dozen miles from the snow-line Here we
found more melons, so had no longer any
anxiety about water, for we knew that we
ascent had now become very precipitous,
and we made but slow progress, not more
than mile an hour. Also that night we ate
our last morsel of biltong. AS yet, with the
exception of the pauw, we had seen no liv.
ing thing OH the mountain, nor had we come
across a single spring or stream of water,
which struck us very odd, considering all the
snow above us, which must, we thought,
melt sometimes But as we atterward dis
covered, owing to some cause, which 1t IS
quite beyond my power to explain, all
the streams flowed down upon the north side
of the mountains.
We now began to grow very anxious about
food. We had escaped death by thirst, but
it seemed probable that it was only to die of
hunger. The events of the next three miSer-
able days are best described by copying the
entries made at the time in my notebook.
21st May.-Started ID A. NJ, finding the
atmosphere quite cold enough to travel by
day, carrying some water-melOnS with us.
Struggled all day, but saw no more melons,
having, evidently, passed out Of their dis
trict. Saw no game of any sort. Halted for
the night at shutdown, having had no food
for many hours. Suffered much during the
night from cold.
22d.-Started at sunrise again, feeling very
faint and weak. Only made five miles to-
day; found some patches of snow, of which
we ate but nothing else. Camped at night
under the edge of great plateau. Cold Bit
ter. Drank little brandy each, and hud-
died ourselves together, each wrapped up in
our blanket to keep ourselves alive. Are
now suffering fTightfully from starvation
and WEAKNESS. Thought that Ventvogel
would have died during the night.
23d.-Struggled forward once more as soon
as the sun was well up, and had thawed our
limbs a little. We are now in a dreadful
plight, and / fear that unless we get food
this will be our last days journey But little
brandy left. Good, Sir Henry, and Umbopa
bear up wonderfully, but VentvogeI is in a
very bad way. Like most Hottentots he
cannot stand cold PangS of hunger not so
bad, but have sort of numb feeling about
the stomach. Others say the same We are
now on a level with the precipitous chain, or
wall Of lava, connecting the two breasts, and
the view is glorious. Behind us the great
glowing desert rolls away to the horizon,
and before us lies mile upon mile of smooth,
hard snow almost level, but swelling gently
upward, out Of the center of which the nip
pie of the mountain, which appears to be
some miles in circumference, rises about four
thousand feet in the sky. Not living thing
is to be seen. God help us, L fear our time
has come.
And now / will drop the journal, partly
because it is not very interesting reading and
partly because what follows requires per-
haps rather accurate telling.
All that day (the 23i May) we struggled
on up the incline of snow, lying down from
time to time to rest. A strange, gaunt crew
we must have looked, as, laden we were
we dragged our weary feet over the dazzling
plain, glaring round US with hungry eyes,
Not that there was much use in garing,
for there was nothing to eat. We did not do
more than seven miles that day. Just before
sunset we found ourselves right under the
nipple of ShebaS left breast which lowered
up thousand of feet into the air above u.s.
vast, smooth hillock of frozen snow. Bad as
we felt we could not but appreciate the won
yderful scene, made even more wonderful by
the flying rays of light from the setting sun,
which here and there stained the snow blood
red, and crowned the towering mass above
us with diadem of glory.
~ say" gasped Good, presently, 1--WE
ought to be somewhere near the cave the old
gentleman wrote about"
Eyes" said |, IF there is cave"
''COme, Quatermain," groaned Sir Henry,
''dOn't talk like that; have every faith in
the don; remember the water. We shall find
the place soon.
'If we don't find it before dark we are
dead men, that is all about it, was my con-
solatory reply.
For the next ten minutes we trudged on in
silence, when suddenly Umbopa who was
marching along beside me, wrapped up in
his blanket, with a leather belt strapped so
tight round his stomach to make his hun
ger SMALL" as he said. that his waist looked
like a girls, caught me by the arm.
'.Look?" he said, pointing toward the
springing slope of the nipple.
followed his glance, and perceived some
two hundred yards from us what appeared
to be hole in the snow.
1T is the cave" said Umbopa.
We made the best of our way to the spot,
and found sure enough that the hole was the
mouth of cave, no doubt the same as that
of which Ia Silvestra wrote. We were
none to soon, for just as we reached shelter
the sun went down with startling rapidity
leaving the whole place nearly dark. In